Monthly meetings are held on the third
Saturday of each month from 10:00 a.m. to Noon at the
Mission Viejo Family History Center Institute
Building, 27978 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo,
between Medical Center Drive and Hillcrest Drive.
Membership is open to anyone wishing to join. Yearly
membership fees are $20 per calendar year for
individuals, $25 for joint membership. SOCCGS is not
affiliated with the LDS Family History Center.
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ITS 2004! HAVE
YOU RENEWED YOUR MEMBERSHIP?Please find the renewal form on the last page of
the newsletter.

GENERAL MEETING JANUARY 17, 2004

Andrew Pomeroy will present his topic,
Finding Anything Online: Intermediate Internet
Research Skills. In September Mr. Pomeroys
lecture on Mastering Search Engines on the
Internet was well received, and this program
promises to further improve our genealogy researching
skills.

TENTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

The Tenth Anniversary party/luncheon was a
great success. Entertainment featured Judy Deeter who
gave several readings. The founding members in
attendance received special recognition and each was
presented with a certificate of appreciation. Thank
you to John Gothard for making the special
certificates for the founding board members. (A
complete list of current members who were founders can
be found on page 2.)

LIFE MEMBERSHIP

Ruby White was presented a life membership in
appreciation for her ten successive years of service
as SOCCGS treasurer. Ruby has decided to retire from
this position. We certainly thank her for the
outstanding job she has done on the Executive
Board.

HOSPITALITY

Happy New Year! I hope everyone is anticipating a
new year of guest speakers, research safaris, new
discoveries and meeting more SOCCGS members. Who will
topple the first brick wall of 2004?
Thanks to all who have provided us with freshly baked
goodies for our meetings. They certainly enhanced our
get-togethers. I know many of you are creative 
you have to be to find some of your more elusive
ancestors! Ill bet you can be just as creative
in your kitchens. Please contact me if you can bake up
your specialty to serve at one of our meetings this
year.
I wish you all successes in your searches!

Web Master Herb Abrams is preparing to put the
SOCCGS Surname Listing on our web site. The plan is to
list the email address of the person submitting the
surname. This will allow a researcher to send an email
directly to you to gain or give information. If you do
not want your email address listed please contact Herb
at hvabrams@cox.net>. We will discuss this
at the general meetings in January and February. The
target date for finalizing the surname list is
February 23.

SAFARI NEWS

Wednesday, January 28 we will journey to the
Carlsbad Library. The car pool will leave the LDS
parking lot at 9:30 a.m. Please make a reservation by
January 26 so we can assure adequate transportation.
Call Janet (496-8428) or Mary Jo (581-0690).

SOCCGS LIBRARY

We are purchasing books
and cds. Please let us know if there is an item you
would like to see added to our collection. Call Janet
or Mary Jo. Members are encouraged to sign up as a
docent or substitute. Hours will be tailored to fit
your schedule. As little as one shift per week will
help keep our library open for researchers.

ONLINE GENEALOGY CLASS

Mark your calendars for April 25, 2004,
1 p.m. Colleen Robledo, a Mission Viejo Library
Assistant in the Tech. Center, has asked for my help
with a genealogy computer class. Complete information
will appear in the February newsletter.

SADDAMS GENEALOGY?

The Iraqi Genealogy Authority
has deleted the name of Saddam Hussein from the list
of noble offspring whose lineage stretches back to the
Prophet Muhammad. It seems that Saddam had forced a
number of genealogists to create a family tree for him
to claim that he had a noble pedigree. The descent
from Muhammad was published, even though proof seemed
to be lacking. With Saddam now safely removed as a
threat, the genealogists are now rejecting the
genealogies published when the dictator was in power.
(From Richard Eastmans Online Newsletter
12-21-03, Vol 8 No. 51)

Up to the 1700s, most of our English ancestors
were buried on the south side of the parish church in
an unmarked grave, wrapped in a shroud (after 1678 it
had to be wool). If a coffin was used for the service
it was probably the parish coffin, because most people
could not afford their own. The great and the wealthy
were buried inside the church and had memorials
suitable to their station in life.
Churchyards were not big enough to allot a fresh
space of ground for everyone; bodies were buried on
top of others already interred. The level of the
churchyard rose, or the bones of those long dead might
have been removed to a charnel house (also known as an
ossuary); sometimes the crypt under the church served
this purpose. A charnel house is more likely to be
found associated with a town or city church.
Not everyone wanted to be buried in the parish
churchyard; Puritans, Catholics, Quakers, and other
nonconformists looked for their own locations. The
earliest burial grounds for those not within the
Church of England were opened in the 1600s. Bunhill
Fields in London, first referred to as a dissenters'
burial ground in 1665, may be the best known; others
were opened after passage of the Toleration Act in
1689. Few Roman Catholic churches had their own burial
grounds before 1800.
Population growth and the migration of people into
towns and cities led to a space crisis in the 1800s.
This was also a health crisis, and local government
officials became aware of the dangers of overcrowded
burial grounds in the midst of densely populated
streets. Beginning in the 1820s, privately operated
and city/town-operated cemeteries opened in many urban
areas. Church of England Records - A few Church of
England registers date from 1538, but many more begin
in the 1560s or 1590s. Not every deceased person was
recorded; those left out included suicides, executed
criminals, and nonbaptized children. Catholics and
nonconformists, although entitled to burial in the
parish churchyard, may have been buried elsewhere and
would not have had the burial service read.
Sometimes the burial of a dissenter was noted in the
register; mention may also be found in the
presentments (reports) of the churchwardens to the
court of the local archdeacon or bishop; these records
are usually in county record offices in England.
Register entries were brief, perhaps just the name
and the date. Some registers give the age of the
deceased and place of abode; if the deceased was a
child or unmarried daughter, then the father's name
may have been recorded. >From 1813 there was a set
format for a burial entry: name of the deceased, place
of residence, age, date of burial, and name of
officiating minister.
If registers have not survived, check for
contemporary copies known as the Bishop's Transcripts
(BT). Each year, around Easter, local parishes were
required to submit copies of all entries recorded in
the parish register to the office of the bishop. This
practice did not happen everywhere (e.g., not for
London churches) but was widespread enough that the
existence of BTs should be ascertained (For locating
BTs, I recommend Bishops' Transcripts, by
J.S.W. Gibson, Federation of Family History Societies
(FFHS), 5th ed; (http://www.ffhs.co.uk).
Microfilm copies of a significant percentage of
Church of England registers and/or BTs can be viewed
through the facilities of the Family History Library
and the network of Family History Centers. Public Burial Grounds - The Rosary Cemetery,
opened in 1825 in Norwich, was the first urban burial
ground available to all who paid the fees. Others soon
followed in Manchester, Liverpool, and London. (There,
Kensal Green was the first in 1832.) If your ancestor
died in a large city after 1830, check into new
cemeteries and some of the history. In London,
Brookwood and other cemeteries competed for the
contracts to bury the poor of several London boroughs,
not necessarily close by. The wealthy had their
preferred burial grounds too. Most people were buried;
cremation was not legal before 1884 and the use of
this alternative grew very slowly.
Some of these records have been published, some are
in local libraries and archives, while others remain
with the cemetery. Check online through GENUKI
and in the Family History Library Catalog
according to the place for resources; regional
archives and libraries will also have information, and
perhaps the records of the new cemeteries. For London
there is a guide, Greater London Cemeteries and
Crematoria, published by the Society of
Genealogists. Research Hints - Before beginning a search for
burial records consider the date range, the religion
of the family, and the size of the community.
Directories and topographical dictionaries or detailed
gazetteers should list large burial grounds. Once you
know if you are searching only in Church of England
churchyards, or more widely, then you can check for
records and how to access them.
Keep several other facts to the fore. What was the
ancestor's home parish? What was his approximate age
at death? Where did the ancestor die? (Death may not
have occurred at home.) Is the date of death
definitely before the start of civil registration, 1
July 1837?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot), is an author,
teacher, and lecturer specializing in English and
Scottish family history. She is the author of Your
English Ancestry (2nd ed, 1998) and Your
Scottish Ancestry (1997) and she is a regular
contributor to several journals including
Genealogical Computing. Since 1996, she has
been a study tour leader, course coordinator, and
instructor for the Institute of Genealogy and
Historical Research at Samford University. She teaches
online for the family history program of Vermont
College and has lectured at conferences in Canada, the
United States, and Australia. She is the president of
the Association of Professional Genealogists.
Ancestry Daily News, 18
November 2003 * Copyright
2003, MyFamily.com.

21% School assignment
20% Death of a family member
15% Gave or received a family gift (software,
heritage scrapbook, compiled family history, etc.)
11% Other** (See below)
8% Family Stories
7% Desire to share heritage with children
5% Co-workers or family sharing enthusiasm
5% Homeland or cemetery visits
4% Adoptees/orphans seeking answers
4% DAR membership/scholarships
* Statistics taken from random poll of
seventy-five family historians.
** Other: taking an adult education class; seeing
errors of family data online; receiving a
challenge from a church leader; researching why a
family name was changed; reading a newspaper
notice; etc.

Cavaliers & Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia
Land Patents and Grants, Vol. I 1623-1666, Vol. III
1695-1732 by Nell Nugent & Vol. VI, 1749-1762,
Vol. VII, 1762-1776 by Dennis Ray Hudgins (We now
own the complete set of these books.)

CDs - Scottish Parish Records (4 CDs)
Records from Scotland in general, the North of
Scotland, the South of Scotland, West Lothian and
Midlothian. These records span the period 1538-1855
and contain a mixture of wills, tombstone
inscriptions, marriage records, and apprenticeship
records. These are copies of original records. (Note:
These cds have been ordered and should be in our
library by January 15.

SUBJECT: EARLY AMERICA
(Truth or Imagination?)

In George Washington's days, there were no
cameras. One's image was either sculpted or painted.
Some paintings of George Washington showed him
standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back
while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices
charged by painters were not based on how many people
were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be
painted. Arms and legs are "limbs;"
therefore, painting them would cost the buyer more.
Hence, the expression, "Okay, but it'll cost you
an arm and a leg."

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As incredible as it sounds, men and women took
baths only twice a year! (May & October) Women
always kept their hair covered while men shaved their
heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs.
Wealthy men could afford good wigs. The wigs couldn't
be washed so to clean them, they could carve out a
loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell and bake it
for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and
fluffy, hence the term "big wig." Today we
often use the expression "Here comes the Big
Wig" because someone appears to be or is powerful
and wealthy.

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Needless to say, personal hygiene left much room
for improvement. As a result, many women and men had
developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would
spread bee's wax over their facial skin to smooth out
their complexions. When they were speaking to each
other, if a woman began to stare at another woman's
face she was told "mind your own bee's wax."
Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the
term "crack a smile." Also, when they sat
too close to the fire, the wax would melt, and
therefore, the expression "losing face."

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Ladies wore corsets which would lace up in the
front. A tightly tied lace was worn by a proper and
dignified lady as in "straight laced".

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Common entertainment included playing cards.
However, there was a tax levied when purchasing
playing cards but only applicable to the "ace of
spades." To avoid paying the tax, people would
purchase 51 cards instead. Yet, since most games
require 52 cards, these people were thought to be
stupid or dumb because they weren't "playing with
a full deck."

******************************

At local taverns, pubs and bars, people drank from
pint and quart-sized containers. A bar maid's job was
to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks
coming. She had to pay close attention and remember
who was drinking in "pints" and who was
drinking in "quarts." Hence, the term
"minding your "'P's and Q's."

******************************

Early politicians required feedback from the public
to determine what was considered important to the
people. Since there were no telephones, TV's or
radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local
taverns, pubs and bars to "go sip some ale"
and listen to people's conversations and political
concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different
times. "You go sip here" and "You go
sip there." The two words "go sip" were
eventually combined when referring to the local
opinion and thus, we have the term "gossip.

http://proni.nics.gov.uk.The PRONI
(Public Records Office of Northern Ireland) has
recently added two new data sources.
1) Freeholders (voters) lists for the periods 1785 to
1831. Searchable by name and place.2) Ulster Covenant with a half
million names for 1912
The Freeholders list was especially valuable for
Donaghadee and Bangor Parish information in County
Down.

http://www.genealogy.com/university.html
I just checked this site that has 85 free
online lessons that are divided into four catagories;
Beginning Genealogy, Internet Genealogy, Tracing
Immigrant Origins and Researching with Genealogy.com.
At least the first three topics seem to be worthwhile.
This site is sponsored by Genealogy.com.

Heredity: People
believe in it until their children act like
fools.

GENEALOGICAL EVENT
CALENDAR

Write Your Life Story: Free classes at Santiago Canyon College, 541
North Lemon, Orange. Begins January 14, 2004. Call
714-628-5900 for more information or to
register. You may also register at the first class.
Learn more about the classes at
http://www.MemoirMentor.net

This is another online converter that may be of
use to genealogists: the Roman numeral and date
converter. We frequently encounter Roman numerals in
the copyright date of older histories and genealogies
 and are sometimes at a loss to immediately
translate them into Arabic numerals.
A web page entitled, "Roman Numeral and Date
Conversion with Roman Calculator" allows users to
convert between Arabic and Roman numerals as well as
between Julian and Gregorian dates. Users can also
determine the day of the week for any Gregorian or
Julian date. This can be a handy feature if you would
like to discover on what day of the week a particular
event occurred in your ancestor's life. By entering in
an ancestral birthday of September 23, 1867, for
instance, you will discover that date fell on a
Saturday.
To use the Roman Numeral and Date Conversion website,
please visit

TheO. C. Archives are located in the Old
Orange County Courthouse, Room 101, 211 W. Santa Ana
Blvd., Santa Ana. (This is on the corner of North
Broadway and Civic Center Drive.) (714) 834-2636,
Hours 1-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
According to an October 2003 article in the Orange
County Register the records had been unavailable since
the O. C. bankruptcy eight years ago.
Some of the records you will find include Great
Register of Voters, 1890-1968; Marriages 1889-1953;
County directories, 1920-present; deeds &
mortgages 1889-1926.

UNUSUAL GIVEN NAME HAS ANCIENT
HISTORY
By Carl Hommel chommel6@comcast.net

I have noted on some mailing lists mention of the
given name of Benoni. This is an unusual name, and
some people think that it is an Italian family name
and the child is named after his or her mothers
family and then indicate that they have been unable to
find a family with that surname.
Actually Benoni is a Biblical name that means
"son of my sorrow." It was the original name
given to the younger son of the patriarch Jacob.
Rachel, his mother, in her dying agony named the child
Benoni.
(Genesis 35:18).
This name was often given in American Colonial times
to a child whose mother died in childbirth or whose
father died before the child was born. In fact, this
is an important clue. When one sees the name
Benoni, look to see what sad event might have caused the child
to be given that name. It might have been the death of
a grandparent, a parent or a sibling.(From the Davenport Rootsweb List.
Submitted by Gail Gilbert)

So many cultural symbols are turned
into clichés, some by people who
claim to have an Indian Princess as their great
grandmother.
Well, some ancestor of mine was a lady-in-waiting to
some
English queen but it didnt improve my
housekeeping
abilities and Im still puzzled by that third
fork at good restaurants.

FREE ONLINE GENEALOGY COURSES FROM BYU
INDEPENDENT STUDY PROGRAM

(The following is an announcement
from Brigham Young University's Division of Continuing
Education)
Brigham Young University Now Has 26 Family History Web
Courses For Free

Through the BYU Department of Independent Study,
twenty-six, noncredit, family history courses are now
available for free. Anyone at anytime can take these
online courses from any computer with Internet
access.
"Technology has made it possible for us to offer
free courses. Our free courses are our regular
courses, but we can use the technology to offer those
free to an audience that is not requiring
credit," said Dwight Laws, Director of
Independent Study.
"Last year the department had three family
history courses for free, and had 30,000 people finish
at least the first lesson. We have no idea what to
expect this year where we have many more free
courses," mentioned Laws.
The courses cover topics ranging from how to get
started to include French, German, Scandinavian and
Huguenot research. Each research course is taught by a
well-known, accredited genealogist. All course
instructional materials are available free online.
There is no time frame required to complete the
course. A student could conceivably finish the course
in less than twenty-four hours due to a feature called
Speedback. Speedback assignments submitted on the
course website receive instant feedback.
A person does not need to register for a free course.
Anyone can go to the department website at
http://elearn.byu.edu and click on Special Offers
to access the free courses.
BYU offers free on-line genealogy tutorials as part of
their Independent Study Program:http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/special_offers/famhist.dhtm
Other genealogy web courses are available at:
http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/special_offers/freecourses.dhtm

Rules for the Behavior of Children at the Table
Colonial America

1. Never sit down until the blessing has been
asked.
2. Never ask for anything at the table.
3. Never speak unless spoken to.
4. Never take salt except with a clean knife.
5. Always break the bread; do not bite into a whole
slice.
6. When the children have eaten all the food on their
plates,
they must leave the room at once.

Our membership duesenable us
to have funds for our library, programs, newsletters,
insurance and other needs relating to the operation of
our organization. The prompt payment of these dues
will make it possible to book speakers in advance for
2004 and have the budget ready for membership
approval, as the bylaws require.
Thank you,
Mary Jo Nuttall, Treasurer * Iris Graham, Membership
Chairman * Mary Jo McQueen, Program Chairman